The Raid may NOT be Getting Americanized?

Gareth Evans' Indonesian martial arts film was phenomenal to say the least. If you are an action film fan and haven't seen this film or it's predecessor, then I highly encourage you to give it a go.

In the high octane action movie, our hero Rama, played by Iko Uwais, and his SWAT team are headed to take down a drug lord in a massive apartment building. The building is filled with druggies, henchman and incredible bodyguards. The plan goes awry and Rama must fight to get out alive. The incredible choreography and fights that ensue will have you at the edge of your seat - racking up 121 bodies to be counted by coroners.

Iko Uwais

The film was a huge success financially and critically and fans clearly wanted more. Writer/director Gareth Evans already had plans for a sequel and sold the rights to a remake away to help pay for his second film. The rights were sold to the studio Screen Gems. The project, which was still having Evans as a producer, starting growing to fruition in 2014, with Director Patrick Hughes and starring Frank Grillo and Taylor Kitsch.

With that being said, the original, which as I described was successful due to its amazing fight sequences performed by Uko and Yayan Ruhian, both martial arts experts. Though Grillo and Kitsch could practice and train I personally don't believe they could have wowed us quite the same ways as the original. Now though, it's been reported Frank Grillo has been focusing on Kingdom and the rest of the casting process has been something of a nightmare, and their studio has dropped the film. Grillo has said,

The Raid was a go movie and there was one character, the critical character, that they were just not happy with. There’s not a lot of 30-something guys out there that… there’s a lot of training, a lot of martial arts training. They weren’t going to remake The Raid, which is a beloved film, if they couldn’t find a guy who could find the physical stuff and they hadn’t been able to do that. So I think we’re going to come back around after I’m done with the second 10 [episodes of Kingdom]. We’re going to come back around to that.

Yayan Ruhian

So there may be a possibility of a remake, but with the casting and studio at a loss it may be a long time before it gets in motion again, if ever.

Personally I did not think it needed an American remake, nor do people want to see one. The Raid is so successful because of its heart and vision. To bring it overseas and attempt to remake it would be foolish and a waste of everyone's time and money.